8 Little-Known Domain Facts

Justin Narayan

Jun 11, 2014

Each day the number of domains increases by about 100,000, so it’s no secret that the Internet is like a world of its own. With so many different users and so much data being uploaded, it’s easy to miss or get lost in information. As the Internet grows day by day, new and interesting events take place changing the Internet landscape. Let's test your knowledge with these 8 fun and little-known facts about domains:

1. Most Domains Registered In A Day

Meet the “Mann” with the most domains registered in one day. Mike Mann holds the record for registering an astonishing 14,962 domains in a single day! When asked why he bought them he replied, “I’m just really greedy. I want to own the world.”

2. Soviet Union Lives On!...Well Sort Of

You won’t find the Soviet Union on a map unless the map was printed before 1991, but the Soviet Union still lives on with its .SU domain name. .SU currently has over 100,000 domain registrations and continues to grow in popularity even with the Soviet Union dissettlement.

3. Free Domains?

Did you know domain name registrations used to free?! Network Solutions was granted the authority to start charging for domain names back in 1995. Domain registrations started at $100 for 2 years of registration, but fell to $70 in 1997. With the creation of ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), domain registrations prices have dropped substantially making it much more affordable for consumers to get a domain.

4. Unregistrable Domains

Domain names such a Example.com and Example.org were reserved for use in private testing only and cannot be registered by anyone. Under RFC 2606 Act, which reserves certain domains for special use, the following domains were considered unregistrable: Test.com, Example.com, Invalid.com, and Localhost.com. However, after sometime, these domains became available for registration, except for Example.com (.NET, .ORG, ...etc).

5. Most Expensive New TLD

And the most expensive new TLD goes to....RICH! Join the elite .RICH community for just $1,999.00 for a 1 year registration!

6. Most Expensive Domain To Be Sold

CarInsurance.com is the most expensive domain that has ever been sold to date. It was bought for an astonishing $49.7 million back in 2010. The group that bought CarInsurance.com also own Insurance.com, which is the second most expensive domain to be bought at $49 million.

7. Three-Character .COM Domains

Looking for a three-character .COM domain? There are over 50,000 character combinations you could make for three-character domains and yet, they are all registered. By 1997, all of the three-character .COM domains were taken. The only possible way to get yours now is to pay a premium to buy it from the domain owner.

8. “A” .COM Domains Are Taken

All domain names with the letter ‘A’ repeated from 1-63 characters are registered. This is bad news if you were planning to register aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.com.